Maine's rural communities debate merits of local policing

Lincolnville, Searsport. and Stockton Springs are the only remaining Waldo County towns with their own police departments

By Abigail Curtis
Bangor Daily News

LINCOLNVILLE, Maine — Nearly 400 residents came out in force Saturday at an annual town meeting where the hottest issue had to do with how to police the small, rural community.

It got so hot at the packed Lincolnville Central School gym that at one point during the more than three-hour-long debate over whether to eliminate the town police department, an attendee actually called the cops for crowd control.